


fight like a girl

by Anjali_Organna



Category: Agent Carter (TV), Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-01-08
Updated: 2015-01-08
Packaged: 2018-03-06 17:19:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,148
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3142448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Anjali_Organna/pseuds/Anjali_Organna
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The first time Peggy and Steve spar, he goes easy on her. She can tell he’s holding back even more than he normally would and it makes her so angry that she actually kicks him in the balls. Captain America is stronger and faster and recovers more quickly than most men, but a testicle shot is still a testicle shot.</p>
            </blockquote>





	fight like a girl

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by all the gifsets of Peggy's fighting style (but mostly [this one](http://tmblr.co/ZdqPLy1a6-GPv)) that have been floating around since Agent Carter premiered.

The first time Peggy and Steve spar, he goes easy on her. She can tell he’s holding back even more than he normally would with another fellow (male) soldier, and it makes her so angry that she actually kicks him in the balls. Captain America is stronger and faster and recovers more quickly than most men, but a testicle shot is still a testicle shot. He goes down like a wounded moose, his face white, perspiration breaking out along his forehead.

“Jesus, Peg,” he gasps when he can finally breathe again, “I didn’t know we were hitting below the belt.”

“Then stop treating me like I'm helpless,” Peggy snaps. “Sparring is supposed to make us better. If you won’t give me a real challenge, I’ll find someone else who will.”

That shuts him up.

The next time, he slams her to the ground and the air goes rushing out of her lungs with a painful _whoosh!_ She’s stunned momentarily, and he is practically crying in apology. After she struggles up into a sitting position, she coughs and says, “That’s more like it.”

Steve shakes his head, bewildered, but Peggy remembers, and to her satisfaction he’s never able to pull that move on her again.

*

The first time Steve sees her in a real fight against a real enemy, they’re in some sort of Hydra warehouse. The Howling Commandos had been sent to destroy the place and Peggy had gone along to gather as much intelligence as she could from the building. She’s in a small office tucked along one long wall, rifling through filing cabinets and stuffing anything that looks important into her rucksack. She can hear fighting outside but she can’t spare the time to go and look. The mission comes first. 

She’s almost done with the cabinet when the door bursts open. A man comes barreling in and Peggy hardly has time to straighten up before he’s launched himself at her with a roar.

In a war, you don’t have the luxury of fighting cleanly. Peggy uses her nails and teeth and anything else she can to gain an advantage. She ducks away and smashes a lamp over his head, and then uses the broken bulb to jab at his face. He grabs her and swings her around into a wall; she elbows him in the diaphragm and then allows him to punch her in the face, wanting his distraction. She kicks him directly in the kneecap and when his leg goes out from under him, ends the fight by slamming his head in the cabinet drawer.

“Woah,” Steve says from the door. “I saw him come in and I thought—but I guess—you’re fine?”

“Right as rain,” Peggy says cheerfully. “You boys need any help out there?”

Her smile grows when Steve, rather helplessly, begins to laugh.

*

As it turns out, the first time Steve sees her fight for real is also the last time.

*

The war is over for everyone but the SSR, it seems. Peggy finds that she is naturally good at covert intelligence work; she’s resourceful and able to improvise on the fly. After her first fight in heels, she thinks, a little wryly, that wartime Peggy had it easy. Her male coworkers all underestimate her, but what else is new? Peggy uses that as well and gets on with her business.

There’s no one left for her to spar with. The Howling Commandoes have dispersed back to their homes and their families, and she doesn’t trust anyone around her. Perhaps Howard would have done, had he not gotten himself accused of treason. She’s fairly certain that she’d break Jarvis in half if she so much as flicked a finger at him. She suggests it once, just to see what he’d say, and then wishes she’d brought along a camera so she could capture the look on his face.

*

She easily flips her husband onto the bed. He laughs and says, “Careful, love, I haven’t spent the last five years in black ops like you have. I’m out of shape.”

“SHIELD is hardly black ops,” she replies, letting him up. “And you know we’d accept you in a heartbeat.”

He shakes his head. “I had enough of that with the Commandos. Besides, this family already has one crack secret agent. Someone has to make sure the kids get to bed while you’re out saving the world.”

Peggy kisses him, because she knows how lucky she is.

*

When Sharon is thirteen, she comes to her Aunt Peggy for advice. The entire world knows about Peggy’s career during the war, her history with Captain America. Sharon says, “I want my life to matter, like yours did.”

Sharon doesn’t have any brothers, not like Peggy had. Peggy says, “How do you feel about learning to spar?”

Sharon, as it happens, feels pretty good about it.

*

Peggy watches footage of Captain America from the battle of New York. It’s one of her good days, and she’s determined to make it last. “Seems like you learned a few tricks,” she says to Steve. He offers her a glass of water and she sips absentmindedly. “You have more…finesse now.”

Steve shrugs. “Been taking a few tips from the fighting styles of other cultures—Japanese, Israeli, Asgardian.”

“Thor?” she asks. “I thought his style was more, ‘Have hammer, will smash.’”

He laughs. “Now you’re thinking of the Hulk. But with his fists.”

“I would have liked to have studied other fighting styles,” Peggy says, a little dreamily. “As it was, I just had to make do with what I knew.”

“Which was simply, ‘Destroy everything in my way,’” Steve says. “And leave a big mess. I’ve read all your files.”

“There’s no need to be rude. Besides, I was nothing to the mess Howard created.”

“His son is the exact same,” Steve mutters and then brightens. “Hey. Peggy. One last fight, you and me?”

She stares at him. “Steve, I’m ninety-three years old. I’m in a _home_ , for god’s sake.”

He raises a brow and holds out his hand. “What, you never heard of a thumb war before?”

She stares some more. He waggles his thumb at her, grinning, and she finally has to laugh. “All right.”

She takes his hand in hers, one young and strong, the other wrinkled and spotted with age. Despite his challenge, his hand is infinitely gentle, holding hers. 

“On three,” he says. “One…two—”

Peggy goes on two because she’s going to take every advantage she can get. He chuffs out a laugh, his face shining at her.

Of course he wins—she couldn’t possibly beat him, and she would not tolerate any other outcome. It’s been nearly seventy years, and he’s learned his lesson.

“I’ll beat you next time, Captain,” she says, leaning back against her pillows and closing her eyes.

“‘Course you will,” Steve says, and squeezes her hand. 

**


End file.
